Based on the novel Nine
Wives by Dan Elish, this new
musical tells the story of Henry Mann, a 32-year-old bachelor who
discovers that the love of his life has met someone new and is about to get
married. What's worse, he's been invited to her wedding! What follows are
Henry's frantic attempts to find a woman he can take as his date – a potential
future wife – to prove to his ex-fiancée (and the world) that he too is ready
to move on.How did Nine Wives find its way to Sharon Playhouse?
I had seen a reading of the show a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It had always been on my radar – and then Jayson Raitt, one of the producers on the show, approached me and wondered if it might be a nice fit for Sharon. I had worked with Dan Elish before…and I’ve admired Doug Cohen’s work for years. It seemed like a great fit to join their team. They had done quite a bit of really good work on the story since I had seen the reading and we had a terrific meeting about the things they wanted to accomplish with a developmental production in Sharon.
What drew you to this story?
I have a tendency to really fall for stories about the everyman. The protagonist, Henry, is one of those people who rarely shows up in musicals. He is, as he describes himself “a perfectly acceptable athlete, an excellent musician, passably good-looking, and disease free.” He just happens, like many people, to not be able to find someone with whom he clicks enough to have a real relationship. I tend to connect as a human with characters who are in the kind of turmoil that regular people experience in their life.
Why is the show a good fit for your mission and audience?
